London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

Profits at low-cost airline easyJet climbed to a record £317 million today as higher sales offset a further £182 million surge in fuel costs.

The group achieved the 28% rise in profits for the year to September 30 after it carried 58 million passengers - an improvement of 7% on a year earlier - and benefited from continuing cost-cutting efforts.

Europe's fourth biggest short-haul carrier received a late summer boost as holidaymakers delayed their holiday plans until after the Olympics Games.

The group saw revenues per seat rise by 7.5% to £58.51 with currency movements stripped out, helped by the success of its "Europe by easyJet" adverts - its first television ad campaign featuring images from award-winning photographer Elaine Constantine and music by indie band The Wombats.

It has already sold around 45% of winter seats and expects half-year revenues per seat to rise by "low to mid-single digits", with forward bookings for the first half holding firm on a year earlier.

The group added that it plans to increase flight capacity by around 3.5% in the first half as it continues to pick up business while some embattled competitors scale back services.

Chief executive Carolyn McCall said: "These results demonstrate that easyJet is a structural winner in the European short-haul market against both legacy and low-cost competition."

EasyJet also benefited from less disruption from weather and strike action than in previous years, with fewer than 1,000 flights cancelled against more than 4,000 the year before.

Shares in the group rose 3% after the company doubled its annual dividend payout to shareholders to 21.5p a share.